Tag: voting system

Rachel Collinson from Newham Green Party says yes, we should.

Many broadcasters portrayed last week’s win for the Conservative Party as a decisive victory. However, the hidden truth is that David Cameron kept his place in Number 10 because of only 1,384 votes.

Yes, really. That’s all it took.

That number is the difference in votes in the 6 closest races for MP. For example, in constituencies like Gower, Conservative candidate Byron Davies beat Labour by 37 votes.

As if that weren’t bad enough, consider that it took 25,972 votes to elect one SNP candidate, whereas it took nearly four million votes to elect a UKIP MP.

This happens because we use a voting system called First Past the Post (FPTP) to elect MPs to Westminster. FPTP is only used by a handful of countries, most of them former British colonies and tiny islands. It only works properly when there are two parties to choose from.

We do, however, use another voting system in the UK – the Additional Member System. You will be using this system when you vote for candidates for the London General Assembly next year. It’s fairer and receives far fewer complaints than our current system. It delivers stable governments that represent a greater range of views held by the public.

Our democracy thrives on debate. If politicians hear a wide range of differing opinions before they vote on an issue, they will make better decisions. For example, without Green representatives in the London Assembly, we would not have had the successful Cycle Hire Scheme (wrongly known as Boris Bikes).

Our current system only benefits those who are already powerful. We urgently need a change in our voting system to restore faith in politics, and rebuild healthy democracy.